Humanity
by Ectoplasmbender
Summary: we all have some humanity inside us. Just some one-shots about what makes us human. Rated for later on. Up first, second grader Samantha Manson just wanted a friend...
1. Chapter 1

Humanity

AN: sup guys?! I have really wanted to do some oneshots for a while, and so I am finally getting up off my lazy butt and doing it

Here we go-

Monster-

Little seven year-old Samantha Manson was sitting alone behind the cement wall that blocked off the basketball court from the rest of the playground. She knew she was safe here and wouldn't be disturbed, because being in second grade meant that none of the kids could really reach the hoop quite yet, and even if they could they'd rather play tag or go swing. But not her. She just sat here and enjoyed the quiet. She had attempted today to play jump rope with some of the other girls, but they all laughed at her and refused to let her join. This didn't bother her too much, because she was used to it at this point, but _someone _decided that she wasn't already miserable enough.

Paulina Sanchez, a girl with countless friends, called Samantha a monster. Why? Samantha knew why, and there was a part of her that agreed with Paulina. After all, she really was different than everybody. A monster. It suited her rather well, didn't it? As she laid her head between her knees, she felt something hit her right on the back of her head. _Great…now they're throwing things at me,_ she thought. But she was instead surprised to see a skinny, raven haired boy run at her, his face red with embarrassment.

"I am soooo sorry!" He yelled. His face was flushed from his frantic dash towards her, and his hair was disheveled. He continued his mad sprint, until he tripped over his own feet and landed in a heap. His ears and cheeks became even pinker. "Oops..." he said sheepishly. He collected himself and bent to grab the ball from Sam, and was about to leave when-

"Hey? Why are you crying?" he asked, concern filling his voice. She simply scoffed and said,

"None of your business. You'll just laugh and tease me like everyone else" She replied crossly. Instead of backing off though, his eyes filled with confusion and he tilted his head like a puppy.

"Why would they tease you?" _Dang, this boy is clueless_.

"Because I'm a monster." His confusion grew on his face and he pondered for a moment, before plopping down next to her and pinching her arm.

"OWWW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" She screamed. Instead of apologizing, he simply smiled.

"Checking to see if you're a ghost. But I could touch you, so you aren't! See, you're not a monster!"

"But why did you pinch me? You could have just poked me." His face fell and guilt filled his baby-blue eyes.

"Oh…I didn't think about that. I'm sorry." Despite herself, Samantha felt a smile beginning to tug its way onto her face. Sighing, she gave up and grinned.

"It's ok. You managed to make me feel better."

"Really!" his eyes lit up like Christmas lights, and she couldn't contain her laugh. Pleased at this, he held out his hand, the ball now long forgotten.

"My name's Danny, what's yours?" she grabbed his hand and shook it, feeling the need to laugh at how formal it seemed.

"Samantha." His nose scrunched up and he looked at her questioningly.

"Samantha?" he echoed. She pursed her lips and responded,

"Yeah…why?"

"I dunno…it just doesn't seem to fit you, but as long as you like it, that's all that matters."

"But, I don't like it." His eyes lit up again and he replied

"Why don't you change it then? My name is technically Daniel, but I hate that name. So I became Danny, see? You could be…Sammy!" her face contorted into a playful sneer,

"Eww! That's even worse! How about Sam?" a look of thoughtfulness crossed his features, and he stroked his chin in mock consideration.

"It's great!" he declared. "Now, Sam…why were they calling you a monster?" the smile fell off Sam's face in an instant.

"Because of my eyes…"she said reluctantly. And it was true, Sam had a peculiar shade of violet eyes. Danny stared at her eyes as if he had just seen them for the first time. "Paulina said that humans don't have purple eyes, so I had to be a monster then." Sam looked away and waited for him to leave; but he never hid.

"Why do you care about what they think?" he asked quietly.

"Because…cause…I actually don't know." She finished lamely. Danny started to chuckle, and she shot him a glare for making fun of her. When he saw his expression, he shook his head and said,

"Oh, no you have it wrong. I was laughing because it seems ridiculous that you should be the same as everyone else. Being yourself is all that matters. I think it's called indu-something…hm…indu…indo…indi…individuality!" He was proud that he knew that word, because it was third grade level. Sam pondered this for a while, before smiling.

"You're right. I am who I am, and I should be proud of that. Hey, do you wanna be my friend?" Danny rubbed his neck before replying,

"Well…yeah, but I'm no better off than you. My family is a little on the strange side, and Dash likes to pick on me. I won't help make you any more popular." Sam just shrugged at this.

"Who cares?" she said with a smirk. Danny's face brightened and he rushed to his feet, tripping again.

"oh, oops, gosh I need to learn how to walk. Hey, I'm gonna go get Tucker, he's my only friend, well- not anymore I guess, because we're friends now. Hey! Tucker would be your friend too!" after he finished rambling, he shot off to go find the boy he spoke of. Sam laughed to herself at the peculiar boy, before he suddenly came back, and whipped his head around the wall.

"Oh, and Sam…I think your eyes are pretty." Then his face flushed red and he ran off again, forgetting the ball he had come for in the first place.


	2. Chapter 2

Identity

I am so fed up right now. Why you ask? Because I'm confused; and Tucker Foley does not get confused. I'm the one who's always ready with a smart quip. The one with all the answers. The one who always had _something_ to say. But right now I'm utterly speechless. And it all started with a simple question.

Last week Danny, Sam, Jazz and I were hanging out at Danny's house when the box ghost appeared and Danny went to take care of it. It was then that Jazz turned around and asked that one question that Sam and I had been trying to put off since the beginning, when Danny stepped into that portal.

"Guys…who is Danny now? Is he Fenton or Phantom?" Now look, I'm a smart guy even if I don't do my work all the time. And I have been used to Jazz's psycho-babble for a long time now. But the question came out of the blue, and it rattled Sam and I both. Because the honest truth is that we've asked ourselves that before. But it was an answer that we could never figure out, or get the guts to ask Danny about. I mean, just imagine you going up to your best friend and asking if they still felt human. Even if you don't word it that way, that's what you're essentially asking.

Of course then Sam and I had covered, and stammered out that Danny was obviously still human…just with side-effects. But that answer has haunted me since that day (no pun intended by the way). Because that answer makes it sound like Danny is sick, messed up, wrong. Like he needed a cure. But that wasn't true. Danny was every bit as ghost as Phantom. And it was hard to ignore.

The way he walked down the hall at school, so quiet and light and graceful. So very un-Danny when you remember how clumsy he once was. At times now, he seemed to nearly glide. And who could ignore the cold? That was something that everyone had picked up on now. Wherever Danny was, the temperature dropped to an eerie chill. When you brushed by him, his shoulder was like ice. No human should ever be that could…unless they were dead of course.

There are things that I don't even think Danny had noticed yet, like the fact that his eyes glowed slightly in the dark, even as Fenton. It was rather unsettling sometimes, and I hate myself for thinking that. But what disturbed me the most was the way he breathed. It was _so _slow that it almost seemed like he didn't breathe at all. I had asked him once why he did that, but instead of answering he stuck his wrist out for me. I got what he was implying, and I felt for his pulse, and it was there. But it was unnaturally slow, just like his breathing. If it where any slower, he could have passed for dead. When he saw my horrified face, he yanked his hand away from me and turned away, so I couldn't see his face.

_He's scared of my reaction_, I realized. Damn, I was a crappy friend.

But even though Danny wasn't quite as human as he should have been as Fenton, he was still so Danny. Even as Phantom, under the guise of glowing green eyes and white hair, he exuded Danny. His lopsided grin was Danny. The way he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck when nervous. The way he wouldn't meet Sam's eyes when she scolded him. The way he blushed when I called him and Sam lovebirds. Even if his blush was tainted green sometimes, it was still _Danny._

I knew this, Sam knew this, Jazz knew this, but I don't think Danny knew this. I know we call him clueless, but there are certain things that he picks up on despite our best efforts to hide it. And sometimes I catch of glimpse of his real face that he wears under his heroic mask, or his dorky mask. Danny is scared. He is scared that one day we won't accept him, that we will decide that he isn't human. Or decide that he isn't a hero. But hero, dork, Phantom, Fenton, ghost, human. It didn't matter. Danny isn't human, but he isn't ghost either. Danny is Danny. And that is the only label that matters.

AN: meh, I don't think I'm all that good at writing as Tucker, although I can write about him well. Anyway…here's this. I've seen so many fics that focus on Danny being Human, or him being Ghost. But I think people often forget that he's just Danny, no matter what species he may be. But I guess that's the life of a halfa.


	3. Chapter 3

When I Grow Up…

AN: just a short little oneshot I needed to write. It's rather fluffy. (Set after PP)

Sam and I were laughing at an old paper Sam had written in second grade. We had been assigned to write a letter about what we wanted to be when we grow up, and we were finally getting them back today. Sam already had hers, and we read it together.

_When I grow up, I will save all the animals!_

"Sounds like you!" I joked. She gave me a light punch before reading out the next line.

_When I grow up, I will punch Dash in the face. Hard._

Dash happened to be sitting in front of us and he turned and gave Sam a fearful look. She wriggled her eyebrows at him and he inched away. I snorted at the fact that the quarterback was afraid of a small framed girl. Then again…Sam is pretty scary sometimes.

"Danny Fenton?" Mr. Lancer called. "Here's yours!" He handed me a wrinkled piece of paper covered in stickers.

"What's with the stickers?" Sam asked.

"I was feeling creative that day!" I said defensively.

"Whatever just read it already."

"Fine."

_When I grow up, I'm gonna be an astronaut!_

"Sounds like you!" Sam said. I smiled sadly, it did. Except there was no way I could be an astronaut now. I was kinda stuck with the ghost hunting.

_When I grow up, I'm gonna fly among the stars. I'll be a hero to all the other kids! They're gonna see me fly, and they'll look up to me. I won't be held back by gravity._

"Well, I guess that part came true, in a weird way." Sam said. I thought about it, and it did come true. Gravity doesn't mean anything when I'm a ghost. And I fly among the stars all the time. And there are kids out there who look up to me, as scary as that may be.

_I'll go to space!_

"I did get to go to space, didn't I?" I said. Honestly, I had been thinking over the past year that all my childhood dreams were ruined by becoming a halfa. Maybe I wasn't so unlucky as I thought. Even though it was hard sometimes, I did accomplish a lot. And now there were no secrets, and my family accepted mefor who I was. Maybe it wasn't exactly what 7 year old me envisioned, but my dreams did come true. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Sam's bout of hysterical laughter.

_When I grow up, Sam Manson will be my girlfriend!_

I blushed and looked away while she laughed. "Shut up…" I said weakly. She planted a soft kiss on my cheek and smiled.

"I guess your wildest dreams came true, ghost boy."


End file.
